Riven shrugs. “Magic. I’m good at intuition and reading people.”
“Go sit at the table. I’ll bring the food over in just a second,” Talonis says.
Kael and I take a seat next to each other at the broad metal dining table that runs the length of the room.
Emeric jogs in a moment later. “All’s calm outside. No sign of any witches or vampires or other wolf packs. The Moonlight pack is currently passed out in Sylara’s house, and the rest of the Bloodmoon pack have all kept to their own houses.”
“You should sleep, Emeric,” I say.
He grabs the coffee Riven made for him just as I freeze at the familiar scents and footsteps making their way down the stairs.
“What, and miss all the fun? I don’t think so,” Emeric teases.
When I look up, I see Ambrose and Nyx. Both with a cup of coffee. Both staring at me like I’m theirs.
My eyes shift back and forth between the two dangerously gorgeous men. I don’t know who to stare at or what to say to either of them. Both of them have the right to stare at me the way that they are.
Ambrose is my mate. The one I’m supposed to share a life with and love on paper. The one I’ve accepted and am willing to let mark me. But Nyx…the love I feel for him is like nothing I’ve ever felt before. He has all of my heart. I’d die for him. I’d kill for him, become a monster for him. Which is probably why the gods didn’t make him my mate. Together, we might destroy the world. So they separated us, made it impossible for us to be together. They were foolish, though, because apart, the world doesn’t stand a chance.
A loud thundering of footsteps clunk down the stairs until Sylara is standing in the hallway with her cup of coffee, looking from the two men to me.
“Ugh, I should have stayed in bed.” She drops into the seat on the other side of me, like she knew the two men would fight over it if she didn’t. “Everyone, sit down so we can figure out a plan for today, and I can go back to bed as soon as possible.”
“Maybe you should just go back to bed now, princess,” Kael says.
She hisses at him. The rest of the guys smartly take a seat at the table without another word. Nyx and Ambrose sit directly across from me, making it impossible to avoid their stares.
Talonis brings heaping platters of eggs, bacon, and sausage, plopping them down in the center of the table, while Brax starts passing out plates and silverware to everyone. For a few minutes, the room is silent except for the scooping and passing of food. It could almost be seen as a normal get-together with abunch of friends for brunch, not a group of mixed species trying to figure out how to stop curses that will destroy us all in the middle of the afternoon.
Until I forget and take a bite with my left hand. Eyes bore into my flesh more intensely than the feeling when the markings were formed in the first place.
“Lumi, what happened to your hand?” Ambrose asks, his tone off kilter.
Nyx just stares in disbelief, just as I did earlier. He can’t decide if it’s real or a hallucination either.
I retract my hand, covering it for a moment underneath the table.
“I think it’s a new rune. I felt it being drawn on my skin. It’s what woke me up,” I say.
The room is once again silent as everyone stares at where my hand is hidden under the table.
“Can I see it again?” Ambrose asks.
Tentatively, I hold out my hand for everyone to see the intricate snowflake design.
“It’s not a rune I’m familiar with. But it’s strange that we can all see it. Usually, the runes of the Moonlight pack can only be seen by other Moonlight pack members,” Ambrose says.
The others nod, agreeing they can see it.
“It’s also unusual for you to get new markings after the initiation,” Emeric says.
“Are your other runes and markings visible?” Nyx asks, staring at my covered chest.
There is only one way to know for sure. I pull my sweatshirt off, revealing my sports bra. My cheeks flush a little, even though I’ve been naked in front of every person here before, and none of them think anything of it.
But there, shining just as brightly, are the other runes on my body. Ones that match Ambrose’s and the other members of the Moonlight pack.
“Just as visible,” Nyx says as he looks to each person in the room, who all nod that they can see them. Before, I thought it was only Moonlight pack members and Nyx because we were connected with our bond.